New York’s Climate Law Is a Beacon in Trump’s Smog

New York’s climate law is one of the most ambitious in the country. It’s also one of the most hated by dirty energy interests.

Passed in 2019, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates an 85% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and holds elected officials accountable for meeting this target. Over the past few years, Earthjustice has invoked the CLCPA to shut down dirty gas plants across the region, as well as defend climate policies such as New York’s congestion pricing plan.

While President Trump abandons U.S. climate leadership at home and abroad, Earthjustice’s state-based climate work in places like New York ensures that the tremendous progress we’ve made over the past few years won’t slow down. In fact, we’re just getting started. From the capitol in Albany, Earthjustice policy advocate Liz Moran is working fervently to both defend the climate law’s mandates and advance complimentary climate legislation like the NY Heat Act.

The stakes are high as people lose their homes, livelihoods, and even their lives to the worsening climate crisis.

Waves wash over the seawall near high tide at Battery Park in New York on Oct. 29, 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approaches. (Craig Ruttle / AP)

A Climate Champion on the Inside

Liz Moran has been lobbying on behalf of community members for nearly a decade. As a junior at the State University of New York (SUNY) in the early 2010s, she spoke up during a lobby meeting against a proposed tuition hike when her fellow students remained silent.

It was a terrifyingly awkward moment, says Moran. But when a legislative staffer took her aside afterwards to congratulate and encourage Moran to “keep speaking up,” she was hooked for life.

Since then, Moran has rabble roused for progressive change alongside communities and in Albany, building relationships with lawmakers, the press, and fellow advocates. Her work has helped achieve major victories, including the passage of New York’s multibillion-dollar Clean Water Infrastructure Act.

Today, as Earthjustice’s first New York policy advocate, Moran works to ensure the state follows through on its climate commitments.

New York can’t afford to wait. Scientists warn that ambitious reductions in climate emissions are critical to avert worsening climate catastrophes like Hurricane Sandy, which flooded New York in 2012, causing billions in damages and killing 44 residents. But getting one of the largest economies in the world to aggressively decarbonize takes constant prodding, says Moran.

Earthjustice policy advocate Liz Moran, center, talks with New York State assembly members Emily Gallagher, left, and Jessica González-Rojas, right, at the Capitol in Albany.

In 2023, during a legislative effort supported by New York Gov. Hochul to defang New York’s groundbreaking climate law — the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” or CLCPA, — Moran worked against misinformation about costs and accusations of climate alarmism.

Moran lobbied nonstop to cut through the noise, explaining to lawmakers and the press that the proposed legislation would be a giveaway to the gas industry and undermine New York’s work to meet the mandates of its landmark climate law.

The prevailing rumor was that the governor was willing to sabotage other climate policies, including ones she had proposed, if she didn’t get to rollback parts of the climate law. “‘We need to stay strong,’” Moran told coalition groups and legislative members. “We need to say, ‘No deal.’”

Ultimately, after “a swift backlash from environmental groups,” Gov. Hochul and her administration were forced to retreat from their efforts, resulting in resounding victory for climate activists.

Switching to Offense

Stopping bad policies is just one part of Earthjustice’s role in defending New York’s climate law. We’re also pushing for good policies that will allow the state to meet the law’s climate goals.

Before its passage, Earthjustice attorneys shut down more than a dozen coal and gas plants in the northeast using existing laws. Now, with the CLCPA, Earthjustice has another tool to push one of the most densely populated parts of the country towards 100 percent clean energy.

In 2023, for example, Earthjustice attorneys used the strong carbon reduction mandates of the climate law to block gas plant proposals in Queens and the Hudson Valley, where communities had long been suffering from polluted air and high asthma rates.

A power plant in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. (Aristide Economopoulos for Earthjustice)

“New York has unique leverage in the fight against fossil fuels because of our climate law,” says Moran. “That, coupled with the power of local stories and grassroots activism, has a lot of power.”

More recently, Earthjustice challenged the state’s permit renewal of a Long Island gas plant, one of the state’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, under New York’s law. Representing clients like the Long Island Progressive Coalition, Earthjustice argues that the state can’t keep approving air permits that ignore the CLCPA’s mandates by allowing fossil-fueled power plants to operate business-as-usual, especially in disproportionately impacted areas.

“Earthjustice has been incredibly proactive in supporting community organizations to address the harms of fossil fuel plants and other polluting infrastructure,” says Ryan Madden, formerly of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. More importantly, “Earthjustice is thoughtful in the way that it engages with communities….They’re not coming in to tell you what to do but rather listening to local needs and offering support accordingly.”

Constant Vigilance

As the climate crisis worsens, activists are building on the CLCPA’s momentum by pushing for additional climate legislation like the Climate Change Superfund Act, which was passed in 2024, as well as the NY Heat Act, a landmark proposal to cut energy bills and cut building emissions at a neighborhood scale. At the same time, Earthjustice continues to defend New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program against threats from both the state and now the Trump administration itself.

Climate activists rally outside Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in Manhattan, delivering thousands of petitions asking her to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act. (Erik McGregor / LightRocket via Getty Images)

Outside of New York, Earthjustice is leveraging state climate laws across the country to push for clean energy. In Illinois, for example, where we helped pass the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, Earthjustice attorneys are now using the law’s strong requirements for carbon emissions reductions to push back on fossil-fueled power plant growth.

As Moran’s role shows, government agencies won’t fully enforce environmental laws out of goodwill, and companies won’t self-regulate. A diverse ecosystem of people is needed to hold leaders and regulators accountable. And laws like New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act give these public advocates the teeth to do so.

“Because we have this law, we can push the state to live up to the rhetoric it’s had for years,” says Moran. “That New York is leading the way domestically and internationally in addressing climate change.”